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Glite Dictionary
mean time

mean time

8.7
Time kept by an imaginary sun that moves evenly across the sky to set clocks
  • noun
  • /miːn taɪm/
  • Specialized
translation icon : tiempo medio
  • According to the schedule, the event will start at 3 PM mean time throughout the region.

Examples

  • Astronomers record the mean time based on the position of the mean sun in the sky.

  • The 68-year-old Elizabeth Abbott arrived at 5:38 Greenwich mean time, exhausted but happy.

    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

  • A container will be dropped off the coast of Burma... in the Megui Archipelago... latitude 20 degrees north, longitude 60 degrees east... at 20 hundred hours Greenwich mean time on May 27.

    Thunderball (1965)

  • The scientific study calculated the Greenwich mean time to ensure accurate global time synchronization.

Synonyms

mean solar time
vsmean time
  • Specialized
8.0

Time kept by an imaginary sun moving at a steady speed used for standard clocks

has identical meaning but is a shorter alternative term

Surface Forms

mean time singular
mean times plural

Morphology

mean + time

The adjective 'mean' (average) combined with 'time' naturally suggests an averaged or standardized measure of time, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer a general sense of 'average/standard time'. However, the precise astronomical sense involving the 'mean sun' and technical civil-time conventions is specialized and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, making the expression only partially transparent.

Etymology

Mean time comes from a simple idea: clockmakers imagined a steady, made-up sun that moved at one even speed so clocks could keep time without the real sun's changes. The word mean here means 'average', so mean time is time measured by that steady sun and used as a 'standard' for towns and later for time zones.